Spending time in the outdoors is one of the most popular fair weather leisure time activities. Whether fishing, camping, picnicking, cooking out, tailgating, or just a simple party, a spending time outdoors is enjoyable. One (1) common way to increase that enjoyment is to bring along food and drink. In fact, a great deal of time is often spent preparing, packing, transporting, and consuming food and drink.
A very useful device for transporting food and drink is the picnic cooler. Prior art picnic coolers have proven to be very good at keeping beverages such as beer and soda cold by packing them in ice. Those prior art picnic coolers have proven to be less useful for keeping hot foods hot and for keeping other items such as paper products, bread, condiments, eating utensils, and the like separated and readily available for use. Such items are usually carried separately in another container or placed in the picnic cooler where they risk .becoming soggy or wet either by condensation or direct contact with melted ice.
The foregoing presents problems either because additional containers are required or contamination of food products or other items may occur. Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved picnic cooler that can keep cold items cold, hot items hot, that enables other items to be readily available, and that enables everything to be carried as a single unit.